Post FemRhet musings

Now that we’ve had a few days at home to recover from yet another fabulous Feminisms and Rhetorics, I wanted to write to you as the President to address some comments and concerns that came up before the conference started, including the registration cost. Many of you commented that you are concerned with the registration cost and wondered where your money might really been going.

We have made two direct moves to address the cost of the conference. One is aimed specifically at graduate students; the other assists all participants:

In 2017, we increased the amount of the Nan Johnson Graduate Student Travel Award to $200, with the help of a generous donor. In addition, we increased the number of awards from 1 to 5. This award also covered the cost of registration for participants.

As a result of your feedback, we will be working with the hosts of the 2019 conference to help establish more realistic dates for early/regular registration that are more in line with campus compensation/declaration to travel deadlines.

In addition to making these moves, we’ve reviewed the conference costs for the past three conferences. Did you know that the average cost to operate Feminisms and Rhetorics is $95,000? In order to help us better understand where the costs come from, and to compare costs from prior conferences, we present the following infograph.

Infograph created by Trever Oakes

We would love to hear other feedback about ways that we can continue to assist you in attending Feminisms and Rhetorics!